Ms. LEUNG Pui Yiu Irene​

Irene Leung, the President of Hong Kong Social Workers Association and the former Social Services Director of The Salvation Army, has committed to social service for 37 years. Soon after graduated from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) with a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences (major in social work) in 1981, Irene started her career in children and youth service, including children & youth centre and school social work. She later obtained a Master of Social Sciences (social work) in 1991. As she turned her frontline practice to a supervisory post in The Salvation Army, she was still engaged in youth and community services. Her first 20 years of practice was specialized in young people and community work. Irene got an opportunity to extend her scope of social work practice to the field of human resources and community network for organization administration and development in 2002. She then assumed the post of Chief Manager for Youth, Family & Community Services in 2006 before she took up the post of Social Services Director in 2011, where she led the overall social service development in the organization and managed over 1300 staff under more than 80 service units/ projects. Ms. Leung retired from the job in 2018. Irene has been participating in the Hong Kong Social Workers Association since 1992. During the period, she took up the role as Council member, Honorary Secretary and Vice President. She became the President in 2016 till now. She is also active in the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). Lately, she has been elected as the IFSW Regional Vice President for the term 2018-2020 after serving as the Honorary Secretary of the IFSW Asia Pacific Region. For community participation, Irene is the Vice Chairperson in the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Committee member of Community Investment & Inclusion Fund (Labor & Welfare Bureau), and Member of Task Force on Lump Sum Grant Review (Social Welfare Department).